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Object Timeline

1999

  • Work on this object began.

2013

  • We acquired this object.

2014

2015

2024

  • You found it!

Poster, 1999 Season, Ballet Tech

This is a Poster. It was designed by Paula Scher. It is dated 1999 and we acquired it in 2013. Its medium is screenprint on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Inspired by her work for The Public Theater, the choreographer and dancer Eliot Feld first approached Paula Scher about designing an identity for his dance company in 1997, when he decided to rename the company Ballet Tech. Scher designed an identity using a typographic family of slab serifs, setting the typography over photographer Lois Greenfield’s images of the dancers. The following year, Scher reinvented the identity at Feld’s request, staggering the letterforms to make them appear as though they were moving in space. Feld provided Scher with different images from his company for Scher to incorporate into her designs.
In this poster for Ballet Tech’s 1999 season, Scher incorporates photographic images of four female dancers in identical elongated positions and sets them against a background of the lighting design plan used for the company's performances at the Joyce Theater in New York City.

This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled A Typographic Performance.

This object was donated by Paula Scher. It is credited Gift of Paula Scher.

  • Swan Princess Figurine
  • molded, enameled, and gilt porcelain.
  • The Henry and Ludmilla Shapiro Collection; Partial gift and partial purchase....
  • 1989-41-182

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Poster, Kabaret
  • offset lithograph on wove paper.
  • Gift of Sara and Marc Benda.
  • 2010-21-100

Its dimensions are

116.8 x 152.4 cm (46 x 60 in.)

Cite this object as

Poster, 1999 Season, Ballet Tech; Designed by Paula Scher (American, b. 1948); USA; screenprint on paper; 116.8 x 152.4 cm (46 x 60 in.); Gift of Paula Scher; 2013-25-6

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design: Recent Acquisitions.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/51689467/ |title=Poster, 1999 Season, Ballet Tech |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>